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Five Ounces of Pain

MMA on Tap

Friday, March 16, 2007

Tim Sylvia recently spoke with a Baltimore Sun columnist about his fight with "The Natural" Randy Couture at UFC 68.

In this phone interview, big Tim Sylvia speaks about his back injury leading into the fight and his future with the UFC. Tim also reveals some personal information about his life in this very telling interview from the recently dethroned UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Here are a couple of notable quotes:

Q. First of all, how is your body feeling 10 days after your UFC 68 fight?

TS. I got injured during the fight and I had a doctor's appointment today. I have a herniated disc in my lower back.

Q. And this happened during the fight?

TS. Well, I was injured before the fight and we weren't sure exactly what happened but we had an idea that that's what it was. I just got diagnosed with it today -- [I've] got a herniated disc pinching my sciatic nerve.

So, I couldn't train. I trained my [butt] off for the fight cardio-wise. But I couldn't do a lot of stuff on the ground because my sciatic nerve wouldn't let me.

Q. After the match, in your post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, you alluded to your back injury. Do you think it was a mistake to bring that up right after the fight?

TS. Yeah, not that it was a mistake … Randy beat me fair and square. Plain and simple. He was the better man that night. He beat me. So, I shouldn't have even brought it up.

Q. Could you give us more details about the injury, for example when it occurred and how it occurred?

TS. It happened about four weeks ago during training for the fight, defending takedowns and stuff like that. Wrestling with big guys you get hurt. I kept training, and [the injury] got worse and worse.

Q. So you're saying it happened about three weeks before the fight itself?